Officials at University of Missouri Health Care and Boone Hospital Center are hoping new incentives and programs will help attract and retain nurses in an effort to combat a personnel shortage. MU Health will offer new cash incentives, including a student loan repayment program, for nurses who take jobs in specific, high-volume areas as part of a recruitment and retention plan for 2017.
With one of the lowest workforce participation rates in the country, West Virginia needs jobs. On a constant search and offering sign-on bonuses of tens of thousands of dollars, West Virginia's hospitals desperately need nurses.
Hospital systems across Georgia confirm to GHN that there's a shortage of RNs in the state. "There is absolutely a nursing shortage in Georgia, and a larger shortage is looming on the horizon," says Ninfa Saunders, president and CEO of Navicent Health in Macon. "This shortage seems to be one of the most significant and continues to worsen."
When a nurse is fired for stealing drugs, not all hospitals in our area alert police and the Tennessee Board of Nursing, according to Sullivan County Deputy District Attorney General Gene Perrin. "That is a big part of this problem, the reluctance of medical employers to do the right thing," Perrin said. "It has to be reported. To ignore the problem simply in my opinion accelerates or enables the continuation of the problem."
The Oregon Nurses Association is accusing St. Charles Health System, of Bend, OR, of unfair labor practices. The union's claims involve a policy imposed this year that requires all caregivers to either get a flu shot or wear a mask at all times while at work.
A potential strike was averted when registered nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown (NY) and St. Charles in Port Jefferson (NY), two hospitals in the Catholic Health System (CHS) of Long Island, approved new contracts.